Jacoby Ford to have foot surgery

The Raiders also will have to come up with a plan going forward without Ford, who decided to have the operation after consulting with a specialist in North Carolina when the injury did not heal as quickly as hoped.

"It will be a significant amount of time," Allen said. "I don't know exactly what that number would be."

Ford hurt his foot on Aug. 17 in an exhibition game against Arizona. He missed six games with the same injury last season and now is dealing with the same problem again.

"It's really basically the same injury that he had last year," Allen said. "When he re-injured it this season there was nothing new structurally different from where it was last year. After visiting with the foot specialist in Carolina, everybody thought that given a little bit of time he could come back from it. After giving it some time and re-evaluating, everybody, the medical people, felt like that surgery was probably the best thing for him."

The Raiders could place Ford on a new short-term injured reserve list, which would sideline him for at least six weeks and open up a roster spot for another player.

Ford has 44 catches for 749 yards and three touchdowns in 24 games over two seasons. He has also scored two touchdowns rushing and returned four kicks for TDs in his career.